How much did your income grow from your early 30s onward?

[Anonymous]

DH and I are 33yo and trying to make a fairly big financial decision right now, but it's hard to judge how our HHI will grow from here. Thinking back, I cannot believe we bought our house at 25yo with a HHI of $95k. So, I'm wondering how did your income grow from your early 30s onward? What was the biggest decade of financial growth for you?

[Anonymous]

Massively. But I'm in sales - control my own destiny kind of position. I was making $180k in my late 20s, $200k-$300k in my 30s and now in my 40s earn about $1M. This has been my biggest decade of growth, but it's because I started my own business at 39 and then income took off because I wasn't sharing my profits with an employer.

Bought our current house in our 30s with HHI of around $250k and we've been there ever since. House worth about $650k now. Sometimes I think wow, we could have a much better house had we stretched a bit when we were younger. But, we love our neighbors and the kids love their friends, so we'll probably never move. And I do like our house and our yard. Sometimes I do feel a little wistful when we visit friends who've moved up to mansions and have, like, Cribs-style closets and gorgeous new kitchens. But, we're happy where we are. Probably going to get a new gorgeous kitchen soon, but there's no room to get massive cribs-closets.

I know it's a hard decision right now because you can't predict the future. Stretching now will probably work out, but it's a risk, in case your income doesn't move way up. I'm very risk-averse so even when HHI was $250k our mortgage payment was easily affordable and that's the only way I could feel at peace.

[Anonymous]

It grew ten-good mostly from passive investment income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It grew ten-good mostly from passive investment income.

Ten-fold

[Anonymous]

Early 30s joint we were at 175K; I cleared 7 figures late 40s which was peak and have sustained 400K since

[Anonymous]

For me, moved from high five figures to low six, but while having several kids - 30s. For DH 40s was the decade he went from low six to low seven figures.

[Anonymous]

80k to 300k now in mid 40s.

[Anonymous]

DW was probably $80k at 30 to $200k at 43 (Fed, same agency the whole time)

DH was $85k at 27, $120k at 29, $450k at 44. Several promotions, but have been at same large company since 29 y/o.

[Anonymous]

(turning back the clock 25 years)
Early 30s - our HHI was about $140k
age 40 - $170k
age 50 - $90k
age 59 - $125k

We decided to have two kids in our 30s. The kids are awesome but our finances are dreadful. Most DCUMers do so much better.

Turns out, our "biggest decade of financial growth" was our 20s ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Anonymous]

Wow, if you ever want to feel like a failure just come read the message boards. So many people in their 40s making 7 figures.

[Anonymous]

low 6 figures to high 6 figures from 30-35

[Anonymous]

Ours always climbed nicely but really accelerated in our mid -40s until we retired at about 60. Much of the acceleration was due to equity payouts from two very successful businesses my husband ran. We were probably making $300k in our early 40s which was 20+ years ago and we were making over $1 million excluding the equity by age 50+. From age 40 to 60 my husband worked for four different companies with each being a good step up. It’s hard to get big increases staying with just one company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, if you ever want to feel like a failure just come read the message boards. So many people in their 40s making 7 figures.

It’s mostly the same few people that hang around here to brag over and over about their seven-figure salaries. And of course, let’s not forget about the liars as well.

Also, in my experience, the “massive income growth in your 30s so you should stretch on housing” narrative is exaggerated here on DCUM. Beyond inflation, I’ve experienced zero income growth between age 31 and now age 41. (This omits my rental income since investment income does naturally grow over time with as your net worth increases.)

But I do make around $150K now, which is perfectly respectable. The idea that someone making $150K today can plan on making $300-$350K in a decade is not realistic – there are just not that many $300,000+ jobs out there.

[Anonymous]

I have not seen a lot of income growth but I have traded some potential growth for family time — took pay cuts a couple times for less work or better work.

[Anonymous]

My personal salary has increased nearly $40K in the past 3-4 years due to a change in jobs. I’m in my mid-40s. When I changed jobs, my salary increased and I have the ability to earn a 15% bonus at the end of the year. Each year, I also get a 3-4% COL raise so the 15% bonus also goes up each year.

My husband’s salary remains unchanged (age 48) but he makes a lot more from side investments and partnership distributions. He owns a business so he can deduct losses and write off the depreciation of assets. We get a lot back in taxes each year.

Overall, our income has grown in the mid six figures over the past 5-10 years.